Your next big breakthrough will happen with other creative people

Stop waiting for corporate giants to be your friend

Hello to the nearly 130 new folks who’ve subscribed to this newsletter since January 1st. I’m Seth W.

I’ve been writing here since October 25, 2021, when the first newsletter went out to 19 people. It used to be called Heavy Metal Email because that’s the world I live and work in, but I changed it to Social Media Escape Club in October 2023.

It’s a lot more fun this way.

Quick background on me: I started a music blog in 2001. In 2008, I launched a metal blog for AOL Music called Noisecreep and ran that for a few years.

Then I got rid of all my stuff, and left my apartment in Brooklyn, and biked most of the way to Albuquerque, New Mexico. During that time I posted metal trivia under the name Skull Toaster on social media for a few years.

For my day job, I work with hard rock and metal publicists and a Grammy Award-winning metal label. More details here.

From a chilly evening run recently

Vulfpeck’s Jack Stratton spoke recently about the streaming landscape and how Apple Music could be fixed.

Lots of people are writing about the death of Pitchfork.

Bandcamp saw 50% of its staff laid off last year.

In 2017, Spotify’s RapCaviar was the “most influential playlist in music.” Now, folks at major labels have “seen streams coming from RapCaviar drop anywhere from 30% to 50%” because “editorial playlists are losing influence amid AI expansion.”

There’s a Taco Bell commercial featuring Portugal. The Man - not for their actual music, but as a “feature” to highlight how broke the band was, but at least they could eat at Taco Bell.

It’s almost as if Seth Godin knew what I was going to write about today:

“When things don’t go the way we hope, one alternative is to look hard at the system that caused the problem. And another productive strategy is to figure out what to do with what we get, instead of seeking to find the villain that’s causing our problem.”

Right now, phones can shoot music videos, laptops can become studios, taking pictures with a disposable camera is chic, and we can post everything to the internet in seconds.

But the days of posting something on social media and getting 10,000 people to see it are over. That ain’t coming back.

If you’ve been a subscriber, you know I always say this - it will never get easier to reach your fans on social media.

Don’t blame Spotify, or Apple, or Meta - these are all companies that were built to make money for shareholders. They’re doing their job; are we doing ours?

Are we making the best art that we can?

Are we writing 1000 words a day?

Am I practicing my bass for 15 minutes a day? (No, I’m not)

If you were the lone creative weirdo in high school back in the day, well…, you'd better read some books and find some magazines because you’re on your own.

Now we have websites, Zoom, internet radio, email, and a thousand messaging apps - there’s no reason to do any of this alone.

We know the villains in the current landscape. We know what we’re up against.

Time to stop playing games we don’t want to play (and can’t win), and figure out what’s next.

My three quick ideas on that:

1. Write a good newsletter to your fans that they’ll want to read

2. Set up a website and fill it up with all the cool stuff you do

3. Delete the social media apps from your phone this week

Will that raise streaming rates and bring back organic reach on Facebook? NOPE. But it’s action, something we can do right now, and it’s a step toward new possibilities.

Email me and let’s talk: sethw@sethw.xyz

If you’re not the email type just yet, leave a reply to ‘Where are you at with social media?’ Here are some of the comments we’ve gotten:

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I’m Seth Werkheiser, and I’ve got a case of the Mondays.

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